
Shakespeare in the Kitchen
Marissa Nicosia(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 30. April 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-1-032-04395-1 (ISBN)
Description
Audiences and scholars alike have long remarked that Shakespeare's poems and plays record the pleasures and perils of the table. Shakespeare in the Kitchen asks what Shakespeare's works can tell us about Renaissance culinary recipes, and what these recipes can tell us about Shakespeare's works.
Marissa Nicosia explores how Shakespeare's works reveal tensions not only within early modern food culture about who should eat, what to eat or serve guests, and when to preserve foods, but also how to undertake the embodied processes of cooking, baking, and serving. The chapters include both analysis of plays and poems, as well as updated historical recipes ready for cooking. Nicosia prepares the recipes that permeate the canon-from Falstaff's beloved capons to the cakes that invite festivity in Twelfth Night-demonstrating how the physical act of cooking can transform our understanding of once familiar texts, and asking what we can learn about food history by recreating historical recipes with twenty-first-century ingredients and tools.
Shakespeare in the Kitchen is an original and fascinating read for anyone interested in Shakespeare, Renaissance England, Early Modern literature, history, food studies, and the history of food.
Marissa Nicosia explores how Shakespeare's works reveal tensions not only within early modern food culture about who should eat, what to eat or serve guests, and when to preserve foods, but also how to undertake the embodied processes of cooking, baking, and serving. The chapters include both analysis of plays and poems, as well as updated historical recipes ready for cooking. Nicosia prepares the recipes that permeate the canon-from Falstaff's beloved capons to the cakes that invite festivity in Twelfth Night-demonstrating how the physical act of cooking can transform our understanding of once familiar texts, and asking what we can learn about food history by recreating historical recipes with twenty-first-century ingredients and tools.
Shakespeare in the Kitchen is an original and fascinating read for anyone interested in Shakespeare, Renaissance England, Early Modern literature, history, food studies, and the history of food.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
General, Postgraduate, Undergraduate Advanced, and Undergraduate Core
Illustrations
32 s/w Photographien bzw. Rasterbilder, 32 s/w Abbildungen
32 Halftones, black and white; 32 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
304 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-032-04395-1 (9781032043951)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Marissa Nicosia
Shakespeare in the Kitchen
Book
approx. 05/2026
1st Edition
Routledge
€170.84
Not yet published

Marissa Nicosia
Shakespeare in the Kitchen
E-Book
04/2026
1st Edition
Routledge
€44.99
Available for download

Marissa Nicosia
Shakespeare in the Kitchen
E-Book
04/2026
1st Edition
Routledge
€44.99
Available for download
Person
Marissa Nicosia is Associate Professor of Renaissance Literature at The Pennsylvania State University-Abington College, USA. She is the author of Imagining Time in the English Chronicle Play: Historical Futures, 1590-1660 (2023) and the public history website Cooking in the Archives.
Content
List of Figures; Acknowledgements; Note on Transcription and Citation; Introduction - Cakes / Twelfth Night; 1 - Posset / Macbeth; 2 - Pear Pie / The Winter's Tale; 3 - Syrup of Violets / Sonnet 12, Sonnet 99, and A Midsummer Night's Dream; 4 - Strawberry Conserve /Othello; 5 - Orange Succade / Much Ado About Nothing; 6 - Salad / Antony and Cleopatra; 7 - Capons / 1 Henry IV; 8 - Venison Pasty / As You Like It; Conclusion - Trout / The Tempest; Bibliography; Index